They Couldve Been Bigger Than The Beatles

River Deep, Mountain High barely scraping the top 40 in the U.S. is the most egregious, brow-furrowing slight that comes to mind.

Curiously enough, Lawrence again: Go-Kart Mozart's "We're Selfish And Lazy And Greedy" from last year.

I still believe that if Walt Mink's first album _Miss Happiness_ had gotten wide radio-play, they would have exploded. (I know, I'm living in a magic world where bears are made of candy floss, etc.)

It seems like New Pornographers should be on the radio and I doubt they ever will be. It seemed like Redd Kross should have been big once, not a smash, but bigger... not now, of course. They suck in retrospect. It seems that New Radicals were dismissed as a teeny-bopper band, but I actually liked them until I started hearing that one song too much-- still, it was just as good as this new U2 shit, at least. Badly Drawn Boy seems okay like it could catch on. I guess I'm not answering this question right.

Don't know if they could have been bigger than the Beatles but Flamin' Groovies definitely deserved massive success! The '90s are full of bands that are criminally underappreciated: they don't have proper hits because mostly they stick to the indie/underground canon (which is defiantly anti-hit and anti-commercial). Most indie pop stuff could probably appeal to everyone's tastes IF it was produced by a major and rendered a bit more "polished".

probably not a particularly popular viewpoint, but i do feel that Adorable could have been big, if things had been different. they were tipped, alongside Suede, for big things, but somehow it never came off. i think if they had been around 2 years later they would have been caught up in the britpop wave (when just about anyone with a guitar got in the charts), but by the time that came around, it was too late, and they'd missed the boat.

oh, and robin. that go-kart mozart album is appalling!

Celine Dion could've been huge! If only she'd eat more!! But seriously folks, bands that should've been huge usually end up doing Honda commercials for some reason, which I think is great (gettin' paid that is).

Don't be dissin' Lawrence (or more specifically, Go-Kart Mozart)! Though even I must admit Cavanagh's astonishment at the lack of sucess "Primitive Painter" had was a bit odd.

Gareth:

"That Go-Kart Mozart album is appalling!"

And that from someone who finds Arndale Centres strangely affecting :).

Depends what you're after. If you're into musicianship, "credibility", surface seriousness, "professionalism", of course run a mile from it. If, on the other hand, you want a vision for Britain removed from heritage culture, a Britain where Martin Parr's vision never faded, then the album's almost an ideal for living. It *does* exude nostalgia for the Callaghan era, but it's as much about a possible future as an attempt to rehabilitate a discredited past. In its own way, it's a more profound political manifesto than anything Blair is capable of giving us.

I actually bought it in the Arndale Centre (I refuse to join the neo- Thatcherite Stalinism of the brand merchants and call it the "Dolphin Centre") in Poole, in a shop which had closed within a year after an HMV opened. Lawrence fights causes that many consider to be more lost even than that, and long may he continue to defy the laziness and obsession with the past of the era he's in.

Neil Finn - She Will Have Her Way. By all rights accorded to pure hooky catchiness, this song should have been obscenely overplayed.

re: go-kart mozart.

the thing is, with the sleeve, and the write ups, and what everyone said about go-kart mozart, it sounded as though it was going to be brilliant.

but.

i just didn't really hear/feel all that parr/arndale-ness (despite even the parr-postcard on the sleeve). i was pretty disappointed, it left me cold. it reminded me more of rowland rivron for some reason. i'll give it another go...

Camper Van Beethoven's Picture's of Matchstick Men

"Queen Of Eyes" - The Soft Boys. It wasn't a single, but it should've been. A massive hit with this might have spared us from Robin Hitchcock's tedious solo career.

Actually a cover of the Status Quo song?

Well, it is Quo's only listenable record, so will just about pass.

I thought Spearmint's album A Week Away was great record - it had (has) an infectious poppy optimism that meant I played it to death, but it didn't seem to do well at all. I can't help feeling that if it had been released five years earlier, on the crest of that Britpop wave Gareth mentioned, they would have had a lot more attention. They certainly deserved it more than the bunches of Camden chancers who were turning up on Top of the Pops every week.

Should we trust the market? I don't really think there's a case for that any more. The market sees the CDs on the stand closest to the entrance of HMV and spends accordingly. It's really a question of who you're signed to and how much they're willing to shell out to get you some nice shelf space.

Actually, that last paragraph's a bit silly so before anyone says anything, I take it back, at least partially. I *know* it matters what the song sounds like too but, well, the hype just seems to be believed a bit much sometimes.

moby grapes self-titled debut shouldnt have flopped.

They certainly wouldn't be bigger than the Beatles..

But that first Mysteries Of Life record could have been a VH-1 explosion... (Mysteries of Life feat. Jake and Freda who used to be in Antenna..and Freda who used to be in the Blake Babies.)

"Kira's Coming Over" would have been the hit single.

Also, Land of the Loops "Puttering About a Small Land" could have been a recent pop succes... "Fresh Pond Parkway" and "Patience" would have been the singles.

Part of me was hopeful, just to see the weirdness of hearing an ex member of Beat Happening on pop radio...

Scott Seward's new thread made me think of this old one which never really got anywhere. So now it has another chance!

Cooler Kids!

I mean E Is For Everybody was a modest hit but it should have been number one forEVER. There's enough density in that song to keep even the retardedest of listeners coming back for ages.

Yeah, if Spearmint had kicked off two years earlier, they would have been "The Lightning Seeds" but Good!

Going back to the original point, Lawrence has said that Primitive Painters would've been a hit. Blanco y Negro were thinking about signing the band, but didn't. The next Felt release, Primitive Painters, was the biggest-selling indie single of 1985, and would've been a surefire chart hit had ByN signed the band, all according to Lawrence.
This is, of course, Lawrence's recollection and he doesn't always let the truth get in the way of a good story, but I am inclined to believe that PP would've been a hit of sorts. 1985, Liz Fraser on vocals...yeah, it would've charted. But given the Robin Guthrie production on Ignite The Seven Cannons, I doubt whether the album would've gone stratospheric...
Spookily, I'm listening to the Television Personalities at the moment, whence this thread gets its name.

Yeah David Cavanagh actually emailed me somewhat huffily to set me right on that one - he wasn't implying it would have been HUGE, just that it would have gone top 40 had it not been for some kind of distro nightmare.

So sorry David C! And sorry Lawrence too!